12 Steps 8 Weeks Menu Planner

$23.95–$27.95

It’s an adventure in trying whole foods for 8 WEEKS. All the guesswork is removed. You can follow the meal plans and take the shopping lists to the store. All the recipes are right in the planner. At the end of eight weeks, you can re-use the menus, or use the recipes in a more free-form way now that you have shifted to a whole-foods diet.

Following these menu plans, designed for a family of four, costs approx. $100 per week in groceries. Many money-saving and time-saving tips are included in the planner. This will simplify and organize your adventure in whole foods!

Product Description

I spent all of 2008 developing 12 Steps to Whole Foods, in response to many readers discovering GreenSmoothieGirl.com and asking for a step-by-step plan to learn the lifestyle I was advocating for.

I became preoccupied with wanting others to be able to do what I’d done, but without all the frustrating bumps along the way. I’d made countless recipes that no one in my family liked. I’d bought hundreds of dollars of ingredients that were hard to find and expensive, with limited or one-time uses.

I’d made recipes that took several hours in the kitchen. I’d wasted time chasing down nutritional bunny hills with little or no gain, and I’d read a lot of useless books about food cults. Along the way, I did find many invaluable nuggets of information and good practices that enormously impacted my family’s life for the better, and others’ as well, when I taught them.

However, in working with thousands of people the past few years, we found that many were trained in how to “diet.” I resist the idea that 12 Steps is a diet. The word itself connotes “temporary” and “restrictive.” What I am teaching here is a lifestyle that I intend to bless your life and minimize your disease risk, forever. It’s about abundance, since the world of plant foods has nearly infinite colors, textures, tastes, and combining potential.

However, there is value to making things simple and easily planned, and as a planner and list-maker myself, I understand the value of living from lists!

Our just-released Menu Planner tool was highly requested, so we’ve spent well over a year developing it!

It is an effort to help your initial foray into the whole-foods lifestyle be as predictable as possible! Many thanks to Desiree Ward and Tina Huntsman, who assisted in developing the menu plans and shopping lists and counted every penny to give you budget predictions. They found that feeding a family of 4 with these menu plans cost $100/week.

Anything new can be frustrating in the beginning. There are a number of habits to change, and at first, you may feel out of your depth, like you have no idea what to eat. (Especially for the overachievers, who try to do 6 steps at a time!)

Before now, you may have eaten prepared and processed foods, or fast foods, but you had a routine, you knew where to buy everything, and how to get or make it. Now that you’ve committed to a change, of course, you have to re-learn those things. Keep in mind when I suggest Costco as a source, and you don’t have a Costco membership, there are other places to obtain the same item in your hometown. Having a health food store, a buying club, an Asian market, and a regular grocery store with a good produce section, you’ll be just fine. Even if you’re missing one or even two of those, you can definitely do this!

If you stay the course, your new habits will become as easy and habitual as your old ones were. Those new habits have the power to nourish you, energize you, and endow you with health, lovely skin and hair, and ideal weight. Your old habits were likely clogging your digestive system, draining your energy, and causing your weight to gradually creep upwards.

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Additional Information

Weight

0.63125 lbs

Dimensions

9 x 6.25 x .625 in

Reviews

Deanne – January 4, 2013:

The format is great. The plans were easy to read, understand and implement. I especially liked the Prep Notes at the bottom of the page to help me plan for upcoming needs. The recipes tasted good and were fairly easy to make. Two problems I found: This is a plan for a family of four who must have very bird-like appetites. It was not near enough for a family with teenagers. Lunch one day was a green smoothie and apples with almond butter. That was not satisfactory to a 16 year old boy. A nice snack, but not lunch. The other draw back to this plan is it relies heavily on the use of leftovers. So on most days towards the end of the week one or two meals are leftovers. In our family there were not left overs. I even doubled the recipe to ensure leftovers, but they were not very popular. A lot of these dishes just don’t appeal the second time around. So I felt like I was still left trying to come up with other meals to fill in on the leftover days. Overall I would say it is a helpful plan. It is a good way to get accustomed to eating the GSG way.

Robyn – January 5, 2013:

Deanne, thanks for the comments. Most people said it was the right amount of food or too MUCH. Hard to hit “the spot!”

David – June 4, 2013:

My girlfriend wanted to try gsg plan and this book for yet another attempt at eating healthy. I figured it would be short lived as most healthy plans are, but we gave it a shot. It has been over two months now, and we are still loving it.

Some of the recipes I cant wait to have a second time. I’ve always been known as the cook in the house, but with these supper yummy and healthy meals my girl has been hitting it out of the park on lunches and dinners.

I’ve been requesting more and more meals from this book….pear and beat salad is SO GOOD btw. There are a lot of salads; but with the array of different dressing and ingredients I’m not finding them to get old at all.

Portion wise, Its just the two of us, so the amounts in the recipes can be a bit too much for us. But I usually do a good clean up or have tasty leftovers. all in all, its hands down the best tasting and enjoyable healthy meal book I’ve encountered.

And after the initial few shopping trips to get the basics its really not expensive. This week we spent about $80 at CostCo. We do have to shop every week, but its all produce, nuts, oats, and other (as i used to say) “rabbit” food stuff. We are able to get everything we need under $100 a week at costco with the occasional $300 CostCo to re stock. In short, buy this book. it’s great.

Though- being a guy, I do through in the weekly steak and potato, ribs, bacon… man food stuff to keep me sane. lol.

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GreenSmoothieGirl and GSGLife founder, Robyn Openshaw’s passion for educating people about diet and nutrition arose from her own personal journey. 20 years ago, Robyn weighed over 200 pounds and had 21 chronic diseases.

Getting off the Standard American Diet proved a lifesaver. Robyn lost 70 pounds without dieting, by converting to a whole-foods, mostly plant-based diet. Twenty years later, she is a competitive athlete, free of all disease and symptoms, and at her ideal weight.